Dredging is defined as the underwater removal of soil, such as sand, gravel, and rocks, and its transport from one place to another. A hopper barge is a marine vessel that is employed in dredging operations, and is primarily used to carry materials like rocks, gravel, sand, and rubbish, from one location to another for dumping.
An important use of such barges is in the bulk transfer of materials used for land reclamation projects. Such projects require the transport of large volumes of aggregates, i.e., sand, silt, and the like, that are dredged at one location, loaded onto the barges, and discharged at a site where land is being reclaimed.
One known type of hopper barge is known as the “split barge.” The split barge has a hull that selectively divides longitudinally between the end bulkheads. The vessel consists of two major parts, i.e., port and starboard halves. These halves are mostly symmetrical in design and are also hinged at the deck and operated by hydraulic cylinders. When the halves are closed, the hopper barge may be filled with materials for bulk transfer to another location. When the hopper barge is split opened, the contents of the hopper barge are dumped rapidly at the location of the hopper barge.
On many occasions, there is a need to dump the contents of the hopper barge onto a beach or disposal area on land, as opposed to dumping the contents of the hopper barge through the split opening of the hull. However, most hopper barges are not equipped to empty in this way. Retrofitting split-type hopper barges by installing pumping systems has heretofore been complicated, requiring significant changes to the structure of the barge. Such retrofitting operations are also time-consuming and expensive.
Further, even hopper barges that are already equipped with pumping systems are inefficient. It is difficult to empty the contents of these known barges even with pumps.
There is a continuing need for a sluiceway device and method of utilizing a hopper barge for pumping contents to a disposal area such as a beach. Desirably, the sluiceway device allows the hopper barge to be fully emptied in a more efficient manner than existing systems.